Contents

Introduction

HistoryAlthough the Fedora packaging process now uses Git, Bugzilla still references CVS, for instance for the name of the SCM flag. It is however purely for historical reasons. Hence, since the beginning of August 2010, for the sake of Fedora packaging process, CVS, Git and SCM are synonyms. More information on how to use Git for Fedora is well documented within the Fedora Wiki.

Requests that require package administrators approval may be requested through the fedora-cvs flag in Bugzilla tickets as described on this page. To accomplish the tasks described here, you need to be a member of the fedorabugs group.

Changing the fedora-cvs flag to "?" in a Bugzilla report means admin attention is needed. They will read your Bugzilla ticket and attempt to take care of your request. In order to make the job faster and easier for the package admins, please follow the guidelines on this page in order to format your request in a standard way with all required information.

Be sure to use the same bugzilla ticket that you used to get the package approved in the first place, to make your request.

Machine processingSCM requests are processed by scripts which are run by scmadmins as they are able. Please do not deviate from the prescribed formats or attempt to make up new fields. If you need special processing not indicated here, simply describe what you need in as much detail as possible and raise the flag as normal; an admin will read your request and process it manually. The scripts only look at the final request in a ticket, so please submit only one request at a time. If you need to change something before processing, simply paste in a new request and the previous one will be ignored.

New Packages

After your package is approved by the Package Review Process, you need to request for a repository to be created for your package. Please copy this template into the Bugzilla comment of your bug that's been passed for review, and set fedora-cvs flag to ?. (The flag references CVS for purely historical reasons.) If you are newly sponsored member of the Fedora Packager group you might have to wait an hour before you will get the permission to set the flag in Bugzilla as the sync is done hourly. After your SCM request is granted, please wait for permissions to be synchronized (which occurs automatically every ten minutes). At that point, your package checkout will contain empty branches for each distro branch. Simply add your files to these branches, commit, push, and build. You can reference Using Fedora GIT for more information on these operations.

Revisionist historyRequests for new f(X-2) packages when fX goes gold will not be accepted. For example, when Fedora 17 is released, no new package requests for Fedora 15 will be accepted.

EPEL is a sub project of Fedora that provides a complimentary add-on repository built from Fedora packages for Red Hat Enterprise Linux and compatible rebuilds. Read more about EPEL before branching for it.

Package name:

It is expected that the requested Package Name matches the package name in the bug summary.

If they don't match, your request will not be processed without verification.

Package name is case sensitive. (pkgname and Pkgname are not same)

Owners:

Owners must be one or more FAS usernames.

If you have multiple owners, add secondary owners with a space separated list.

This field does not accept email addresses.

This field is also case sensitive.

Branches:

Valid branch names currently used for Fedora: f16f17el5 and el6.

The devel branch is implicit and always created, so you need not list it. (This implies that Branches: can be left blank if you only wish for a devel branch.)

InitialCC:

InitialCC contain FAS usernames that receive mail pertaining to this package, but are not necessarily owners.

More than one can be listed separated by spaces.

You may leave this field blank if you do not wish for any additional accounts to be CC'd.

This field does not accept email addresses, which implies that anyone who wishes to be automatically CC'd on bugs (upstream, perhaps) must obtain a Fedora account.

Pseudo-users for SIGs

The following pseudo-users in packagedb (shown on the left of the table) can be used in InitialCC when appropriate, so that bugzilla and commits mails get CC'ed to the relevant mailing-lists and groups can triage their bugs effectively. Note that the InitialCC field does not accept email addresses; use the username on the left.

Multiple comaintainers recommendedWhen the primary owner of the package is a pseudo-user, it's recommended that there are multiple comaintainers (people with approveacls) on the package. That way, if one person leaves the project, the comaintainers are still able to approve acl requests for others

username

email

anaconda-maint

anaconda-maint-list[AT]redhat.com

astronomy-sig

fedora-astronomy-list[AT]redhat.com

ctrl-center-team

control-center-maint[AT]fedoraproject.org

fonts-sig

fonts-bugs[AT]lists.fedoraproject.org

gecko-maint

gecko-maint[AT]redhat.com

hams-sig

fedora-hams[AT]fedoraunity.org

haskell-sig

haskell-devel[AT]lists.fedoraproject.org

i18n-team

i18n-bugs[AT]lists.fedoraproject.org

java-sig

java-devel[AT]lists.fedoraproject.org

kernel-maint

kernel-maint[AT]redhat.com

lvm-team

lvm-team[AT]redhat.com

mono-sig

fedora-mono[AT]lists.fedoraproject.org

orphan

extras-orphan[AT]fedoraproject.org

perl-sig

perl-devel[AT]lists.fedoraproject.org

retired

retired-packages[AT]fedoraproject.org

virtmaint

fedora-virt-maint[AT]redhat.com

xen-maint

xen-maint[AT]redhat.com

xgl-maint

xgl-maint[AT]redhat.com

Package Change Requests for existing packages

To request:

additional branches for an existing package

unretirement of a package on specific branches

other special git requests, etc

please use the existing review ticket for requests, even though it may well be CLOSED (please do not reopen it). If a review ticket does not exist or you really cannot find it, then creating a new bug is acceptable. In this case set component to your package name, and version to rawhide.

You can search for the review by visiting the Review Status page and entering the the package name in the search box.

Please check with the package owner first before requesting a new branch, if you are not the owner.

Ownership and comaintainer changesIn most cases, you can use the Fedora Package Database web interface to request changes to ownership and comaintainer status on existing packages. When the owner is unresponsive or you need to make a lot of changes to a lot of packages it is fine to open an Admin request to make the change instead.

For new branches, please use the following template to state clearly exactly what you want and why it is justified in your Bugzilla comment. Then set the fedora-cvs flag to ?. Note that there is no need to reopen the bug if it is closed; the package administrators only query on the state of the fedora-cvs flag, and it takes extra time for the administrators to look up the original resolution of the bug so that it can be re-closed properly.

The Package Name field is mandatory. Please only include other fields which need to be changed or updated. In the Owners field list the branch owner and any comaintainers. Please note that when the new branch is created, ownership or CC information will not be copied to the new branch, so be sure to specify in the request all of the owners and initialCC members the new branch should have.

For unretirement of branches, please simply state which branches should be unretired (and raise the fedora-cvs flag as usual). You will need to log into pkgdb and claim them after your request is processed. You can also request new branches in the same request using the above change request template, but to avoid delays in processing your request, please don't attempt to add branches which already exist.

If you need other special changes done which cannot be handled by the template field, such as a package that was created with the wrong name that has never been imported or built, or
otherwise out of the scope of the template please state your desire and justification below the template in your Bugzilla comment.

Note for current packages that have been renamed upstream, a new package needs to be created and reviewed before it can be added.